


we'll watch the sun kiss the moon

by sangi



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-14
Updated: 2012-09-14
Packaged: 2017-11-14 05:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/511635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sangi/pseuds/sangi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where the Avatar can only bend air, Korra is lost in her nightmares and Asami tries to glue her back together.  -- For day two of Korrasami week, with the prompt "nightmares." Could be gen or shippy; up to you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we'll watch the sun kiss the moon

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a bit behind on Korrasami week, but I thought this up and couldn't resist. Accompanying music - Fall by Cider Sky. This could either be after Korra lost her bending, or in an AU where she never regains it. It could also be sort-of-friendship, or not. Drabblesque & mostly unedited.
> 
> On tumblr [here](http://honestly-sangi.tumblr.com/post/31513742019/fic-well-watch-the-sun-kiss-the-moon-korra-asami).

1.

A soft whimpering noise wakes her.

Asami turns on her side, eyes wide open and body tense. It takes her a moment to realize that it's coming from outside her room. There! - there it is again, along with the sound of shuffling sheets. She relaxes as soon as she knows it isn't an intruder sneaking into the temple compound. Even the most innocuous of noises wake her in the middle of the night now, though it's usually nothing, sometimes a tree blowing in the wind or a mischievous fox-raccoon outside her window.

It comes again, sounding like a breathless sob muffled in a pillow. The girl frowns. Two rooms flank hers. One belongs to Jinora, the other to Korra. _What happened to Jinora?_ she wonders, already sitting up in bed and sliding her feet into warm house slippers. Darkness leaves most of the room in obscurity, although her eyes adjust quickly to the lack of light. The window is partially open, allowing her to see the star-speckled night sky. _It's a new moon_ , she remembers, staring wistfully outside before closing the window.

She slides her door open and shuts it behind her, the silk of her robe making little noise. Three steps away is Jinora's room, and Asami places her head close to the door and listens. Nothing. She hears nothing but soft breathing and muffled words - _is she a sleep-speaker?_ It must have been a bad dream, but the girl sounds fine now. There is no crying, no nightmares in this room. She smiles, feeling a bit silly for overreacting.

Turning toward her own room, Asami suddenly stops and tilts her head to the side, listening. Wait, there it is again; it's coming from the other direction, away from Jinora's mumblings and toward the other end of the hallway.

Korra's room is there, Asami knows, walking slowly to the Avatar's door. It's shut like the others, the wood paneling simple and severe. The dark-haired girl pauses, standing in the darkness, ear carefully placed against the door. Less than a minute passes before she hears it again, that desperate and dry sobbing sound, and she barely hesitates before sliding the door open and slipping inside.

Arms curled around her knees, the sleeping Avatar is tightly coiled on the bed. Her hair is loose around her shoulders, the waves inky shadows in the darkness. The window on the wall is wide open, letting in enough light that Asami can see tear tracks on her face. Though it's not too cool, the girl's body is shivering beneath the plain white sheets. Her body even shakes slightly as she lets out another small sound.

The pitiful half-whimper, half-cry almost breaks Asami's heart.

She moves without thinking, taking tentative steps toward the bed. Sitting down on the far side of the bed, her weight sinks into the mattress. "Korra?" Her voice is little more than a whisper in the night. Korra turns toward her, body twisting beneath the sheets and wracked with sporadic shivers. "Korra, are you alright?" Asami leans over, planning to shake her shoulder, but the other girl's hand shoots out and catches her wrist.

Her breath stops in her throat and she quickly glances down at the Avatar. But she is still sleeping, eyes closed and a tear leaking from her right eye. She says something in her sleep, mumbled partially against the pillow, before whimpering yet again. Asami bends over, placing her ear as close to Korra's mouth as she can without waking the girl.

"I can't feel her," she whispers, voice broken and slurred by sleep, "I can't feel the moon - the push and pull - I just feel the air, the wind, the chill -" and her thought trails off, body curling around Asami's arm. She tries to extricate it from Korra's grasp, but the other girl's fingers won't let go and she sobs again.

Asami considers her for a moment before bringing down her other hand and placing it on her shoulder. Korra relaxes slightly beneath her touch, scooting closer and seeking the warmth of her body. "It's okay, Korra," she says quietly. "Everything will be okay."

It might not, but there's no need to tell her that. Sometimes, Asami knows, things don't work out, they fall apart like the expensive antique vase she broke when she was seven. It had been her mother's favorite. A thousand pieces of porcelain had scattered across the floor when it fell, crunching beneath her wooden shoes. She had tried to pick them all up, but it was just impossible, there were just too many. Her hands were bleeding from cuts when her father found her, knees sore and sobbing on the ground, grasping at fragments of her foggy memories of her mother. He had immediately ordered the maids to sweep the floor and had led her away to wash her hands and pull out tiny pieces of the vase. His warm body had comforted her when she cried into his chest. "I'm sorry, Asami," he had said, "but there are some things we simply cannot fix."

But Korra wasn't the vase, she wasn't broken yet, and Asami could plaster the cracks to hold her together. The fractures would always be visible, Asami knew, but at least she wouldn't shatter. Sometimes vases that had been glued back together were stronger than before. She just knew she didn't want Korra to shatter, to break into a million little parts that she could never gather. She didn't want to feel the sting when she tried to pick up the pieces and bled.

So Asami lays down on the bed and lets Korra cry into her shoulder, the crying girl still sleeping. The tears soak into her robes, never relenting, and small bits of speech pour out of Korra at times: "no, not my bending, anything but my bending" and "where is she? I can't find her, la and tui and-" and a defiant "I am the leaf."

Her head is tucked beneath Asami's chin, as her father had let her do so long ago, and she just rubs soothing circles with her fingers. She says nothing, both afraid to wake Korra and aware that words won't help. The Avatar's breathing slowly settles, not completely steady, but not broken by sobs and chattering teeth. The green-eyed girl rests lets her chin rest atop Korra's head, rocking slightly, and the Avatar settles into her hold. Her sleep becomes peaceful again, and she speaks one last time against Asami's collarbone. " _Yue_ ," she breathes.

The other girl falls asleep too, her body curled around the Avatar's compact frame, maybe hoping to keep her glued together, maybe trying to shelter her from the fact that she's already begun to crack.

Asami sleeps and dreams of a white-haired girl whose body bleeds red water, whose blue eyes are solemn but smiling, and whose body is bathed in the pale light of the moon; she dreams of a dark-haired girl with a wide grin and a sulky pout who bends water like she breathes, and the red moon crackles with lightning and whispers to Asami, telling her to _let the tide carry you away, let the tides sweep you into the ocean, and let the ocean bring you to life._

 _Push and pull - push and pull_ \- her body falls into deep, dark water and she dreams no more.

 

2.

Her eyes fluttering open, Asami wakes laying on her side as the sunlight breaks through the window. She stiffens when she realizes that there is a warm body next to her and a tanned arm flung across her middle. Her gaze follows the arm back up to Korra's face next to hers, still peacefully sleeping, and she sees the long lashes shadowing the other girl's cheeks and the dark bags beneath her eyes. Her chest rises and falls with each tremulous breath, still shivering slightly, but nothing like it was in the moonless hours of the moring. 

She looks tragically beautiful like this, so splintered and haunted. She is a cracked vase, not yet broken and only partially glued. Her nightmares have become real, Asami thinks that there might be little left for her but training her airbending, searching for a way to get her bending back, and spending sleepless nights staring up at the moon. _What is it like to lose yourself?_   _What is an Avatar that can't bend all the elements? What hope can she bring the people?_ Asami doesn't know.

Tear tracks have dried on Korra's face, leaving soft trails of bitterness on her cheeks. Her fingers trace one before she realizes what she is doing and the sleeping girl stirs slightly. A light breeze blows through the room, and Asami drops her hand as if burned. Korra's closed eyes flicker slightly, but her breathing doesn't change. Asami relaxes and smiles.

Fractured, she is, and maybe she can never be whole again. But Asami won't let her shatter.

"Sleep well, Avatar," she says quietly, slipping out of Korra's loose embrace. Her now-empty hand clenches in the bed sheets, grasping for what is already gone, and Asami leaves the room as the household begins to wake.

Asami opens the window in her room and stares out at the ocean. It smells like salt and rain and she almost swears she can feel the push and pull of the tides. She dismisses the thought quickly, but she closes the window again all the same, as if it makes a difference.

Her bed is cold when she slips between the covers.

**Author's Note:**

> Asami's name could mean morning sea if you use the kanji 朝海, or morning beauty if 朝美. Also, Seychelle Gabriel voiced Yue in A:TLA.


End file.
